Description: Liquid biopsies (blood, urine, etc.) provide noninvasive access to a host of important circulating biomarkers, including extracellular vesicles, cell-free DNA (cfDNA), and proteins, which provide a resource for frequently sampling an individual’s health state. In this talk, we cover the latest research on the relevant biology found in these fluids and discuss opportunities in microfluidics for disruptive technology development to isolate and interrogate these biomarkers, aiding disease diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment-response monitoring.

In 2013, Joshua Smith helped establish the Nanobiotechnology group at IBM Research. With over 10 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, Dr. Smith is a Research Staff Member, IBM Master Inventor, and leads silicon development efforts with research interests in microfluidic devices aimed at separation and detection of single molecules.

He graduated summa cum laude with his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University (2004) and received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University (2011) on an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Stacey Gifford joined IBM Research in 2014 and is a Research Staff Member in the Nanobiotechnology group. She leads development of biomedical applications of nanobiotechnology tools for sample preparation.

Stacey graduated cum laude with her B.S. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2007 and received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 2013.